10-Year-Old Graduates From High School

Tanishq Abraham wants to cure cancer, be president

(Newser)
–
Tanishq Abraham has modest goals for a 10-year-old—he'd like to cure cancer and become president. Which probably seems realistic to the Sacramento prodigy, because Abraham just became one of the youngest children to ever graduate high school, earning him a letter of congratulations from Barack Obama. "It wasn't, like, easy, but it was not that hard either," Abraham tells ABC 10. "The way my brain works is that when you give me something, information about that topic comes into my mind. I don't know what it is but that's how it is for me."

Abraham became the youngest-ever member of MENSA at age 4—his IQ is in the 99.9th percentile—and he began "pestering" his mother to let him take college paleontology classes at age 6, Yahoo Shine reports. He's been homeschooled since skipping the first grade, while simultaneously taking courses from American River College. He'll enroll there as a full-time student in September, and expects to have an associate's degree by the end of the fall semester. From there, he hopes to attend Harvard, MIT, or Cornell. Abraham's 8-year-old sister is also in MENSA, making the family almost as impressive as this one.

Tanishq Abraham, then-9, smiles as he and other students are inducted into the International Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa at American River College in Sacramento, Calif, May 3, 2013.
(KCRA3, KXTV10, KOVR13, KUVS19, KMAZ31, KTXL40)

Community

Site Maps

Get Newser

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.